Breast pad



Feb. 10, 1970 N. BEALS 3,494,365

BREAST PAD Filed Feb. 2, 1967 FIGI INVENTOR NORMAN BEALS fl Y MW-FWW.

ATTORNEYS.

United States Patent O 3,494,365 BREAST PAD Norman Beals, Des Plaines,Ill., assignor to Hidden Charm, Inc., a corporation of Illinois FiledFeb. 2, 1967, Ser. No. 613,580 Int. Cl. A41c 3/]:0; A61f 1/24 U.S. Cl.128479 15 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A breast pad including afilled flexible envelope having pleats in the back wall projecting intothe filling material and decreasin the efficiency of the envelope. Thefilling material is an amorphous, thermoplastic, pressure displaceablegel-like solid such as a plastisol and has substantially complete memoryfor the envelope form. The pad has the consistency, feel properties andpressure displaceability properties of a human bosom.

This invention relates to breast pads of the type which are worn for thepurpose of improving the appearance of the figure of the wearer.

Breast pads of many types have previously been provided. These includestuffed pads which may contain reinforcing members, pads containingparticulate cellular materials and sacs or envelopes containing air andliquids. Such pads have been designed for the purpose of filling out afigure after surgical removal of a breast and also for the purpose ofincreasing or changing the size and shape of the bosom of the wearer.However, these pads have had various disadvantages. Often the pads aredifficult to fit properly in stock sizes. These pads which contain solidpadding materials sometimes become misshaped because of the arrangementof the padding material. Often the padding material has no memory forits original shape. Where sacs containing liquid or air are used,leakage problems can result. Additionally, liquid filled sacs haverequired air spaces and the liquids can cause sloshing sounds duringmovement of the wearer. Additionally, although some of the previouslyprovided breast pads may have the proper appearance, the feel of the padto another differs from the feel of an actual bosom, e.g. when thewearer is dancing with the other person. Much development has beendirected to overcoming these problems with breast pads.

It is an object of this invention to provide a new and useful breast padstructure.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a breast pad whichdoes not have the above mentioned disadvantages.

A further object of the invention is to provide a breast pad which hasthe proper memory and feel corresponding generally to that of a humanbosom.

It is a further object of this invention to provide such a breast padhaving good feel properties while at the same time having properresiliency and flexibility.

Other objects of this invention will be apparent from the followingdescription and the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 shows a form of breast pad of this invention, in section and inproper position on the bosom of a wearer;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged plan of the breast pad of FIG. 1 from the backsurface thereof;

FIG. 3 is a vertical section through the breast pad taken along line 33of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is a horizontal section through the breast pad taken along line4-4 of FIG. 2.

While this invention is susceptible of embodiment in many differentforms, there is shown in the drawings and will be described in detailherein a specific embodiice ment of the invention with the understandingthat the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification ofthe principles of the invention and is not intended to limit theinvention to the specific embodiment described and illustrated.

Turning first to FIG. 1, there is illustrated a breast pad 12 which canbe worn on the bosom 14 of a wearer and can be held in place by abrassiere, illustrated in phantom at 16. As best seen in FIGS. 3 and 4,the pad comprises an impervious plastic envelope 18 forming a convexfront wall and a generally concave back wall. Means conforming thepressure displacement properties of the pad more closely to those of ahuman bosom are provided in the form of a plurality of pleats 20 in theback Wall. Pleats 20 comprise a generally horizontal array of verticallyextending pleats which protrude a substantial distance into the interiorof the envelope 18. Filling the envelope 18 is a soft mass of material22 haVing generally the consistency of a human bosom. The pleats 20extend into the material 22, for example a distance of at least aquarter of the thickness of envelope 18 from the back to the frontwalls.

The purpose of the pleats is to increase the surface area of the massand the envelope enclosing the mass, relative to the volume of the mass.This results in decreased efliciency of the containing envelope andimparts greater displacement to the contained mass under low pressure,conforming the displacement properties of the pad more closely to thesoft feel of a human bosom. Although pleats are shown for providingproper displacement properties of a human bosom, other means such as aspiral groove formed in the wall of the envelope can be used. Preferablythe pleats, spiral groove or the like, are suflicient to also permit thepad to conform the concave rear wall of the pad to a variety of bosomsizes, such as results from the pleats in the illustrated embodiment.

The envelope 18 can be made by first forming the front and rear wallsseparately using conventional plastic sheet forming techniques. Thematerial used for envelope 18 is a tough, flexible, plastic material.The material is preferably air impermeable. The pleats 20 are formed inthe rear wall during the forming operation.

The formed front and rear walls are then hermetically bonded to eachother about most of their periphery. As seen in FIG. 2, the front andrear walls include spout portions, as shown in phantom at 28, and thehermetic seal extends up the side walls of the spout portions to form aspout opening at the top of the envelope. After the spout, shown inphantom at 28, has been used for the purpose of filling the envelopewith the material 22, the spout portion is cut off along out line 26 andthe opening is sealed along line 26. During the filling operation, theenvelope .18 is retained in a mold which includes fin-like membersextending into and holding pleats 20 in their proper position so thatthey will extend toward the front wall of envelope 18.

The material 22 is a gel-like material which has sub stantially completememory for the form of the envelope 18. This material may advantageouslybe a pressure dis placeable, amorphous, normally solid, i.e. non-liquid,thermoplastic material which is heated to a melt for introducing intothe envelope 18 through spout 28. The thermoplastic material solidifiesto a gel-like consistency at room temperature, to form the soft mass ofmaterial 22. The melting point of the thermoplastic material should besignificantly above human body temperature so that the material does notmelt during use of the breast pad. It will be noted that the mass ofmaterial 22 is a unitary homogenous mass which completely fills theenvelope 18, leaving no air space. The mass also has the conformability,memory, resilience and flexibility properties of a luman bosom. Sincethe mass is poured in as a melt and :olidified in situ, it may adhere tothe inner walls of enlelope 18, and in the unit the outer surface ofmass 22 is 'elatively immovable with respect to the envelope 18.

The mass 22 can be, for example, a non-cellular noniquid plastic such asa plastisol of a thermoplastic ma- ;erial in a suitable plasticizer. Thethermoplastic material 1nd plasticizer are included in such acomposition in Jroper proportions with respect to each other to give theiesired memory, resilience and flexibility properties and :he feel of ahuman bosom. Alternatively, the thermoglastic material can be formed bypolymerization in situ n the plasticizer, and the polymerization can bekilled )nce it has progressed to the proper degree to give the aroperproperties.

I claim:

1. A breast pad comprising an envelope having a convex front wall and arear wall for engaging the outer surface of a human breast, said wallsbeing of tough, flexible rnaterial and forming the envelope, and a massof soft material enclosed within said envelope and substantially:ompletely filling said envelope, said walls including wall portionsprojecting into said soft material and decreasing the efficiency of saidenvelope to a level imparting the general pressure displacementproperties of a human :osom to the filled envelope whereby the pad isprovided with generally the consistency of a human bosom.

2. The pad of claim 1 wherein said efficiency decreasing means comprisesmeans in the rear wall increasing Lhe surface area of the enveloperelative to the volume of said mass.

3. A breast pad comprising an envelope having a convex front wall and aconcave rear wall, said walls being of tough, flexible material andbeing hermetically bonded to each other about their periphery formingthe envelope, and a mass of soft material enclosed within said envelopeand substantially completely filling said envelope, said rear wallincluding a plurality of deep pleats in said rear wall projectinginwardly into said envelope With said pleats projecting into said softmaterial for decreasing the efficiency of said envelope to a levelimparting the general pressure displacement properties of a human bosomto the filled envelope whereby the pad is provided with generally theconsistency of a human bosom [said efliciency decreasing meanscomprising a plurality of deep pleats in said rear wall projectinginwardly into said envelope with said pleats projecting into said softmaterial].

4. The pad of claim 3 wherein said plurality of pleats is a laterallyaligned array of vertically extending pleats in said rear wallprojecting into said mass.

5. The pad of claim 4 wherein each of said pleats projects at leastapproximately one-quarter the thickness of said mass.

6. The pad of claim 3 wherein said pleats are suflicient in number andsize to conform the concave rear wall of the pad to a variety of bosomsizes.

7. The pad of claim 1 wherein said filled envelope has substantiallycomplete memory for its form.

8. The pad of claim 1 wherein said walls are of a flexible, airimpermeable thermoplastic material.

9. The pad of claim 1 wherein said soft material is a unitary resilientand flexible mass of conformable amorphous solid material and saidprojecting wall portion comprises pleats projecting into said mass forincreasing the surface area of the envelope in relation to its volume todecrease the efficiency of the envelope the proper degree to impart thepressure displaceability properties of a human bosom thereto.

10. A breast pad consisting essentially of a filled envelope having aconvex front wall and a rear wall for engaging the outer surface of abreast, said walls being of tough, flexible material, and a mass ofamorphous, thermoplastic, pressure displaceable, solidified plastisolmaterial filling said envelope to bring said envelope up to breast padshape, said filled envelope having substantially complete memory for itsform.

11. The pad of claim 10 wherein said mass is a unitary homogenous mass.

12. The pad of claim 10 wherein said'mass has the conformability,resiliency and flexibility properties of a human bosom.

13. The pad of claim 10 wherein said envelope is air impermeable andsaid plastisol material surface hardens upon exposure to air, wherebysaid pad is self-sealing.

14. A breast pad comprising a filled envelope having a convex front walland a rear wall for engaging the outer surface of a breast, said wallsbeing of tough, flexible material and being secured to each other abouttheir periphery in the form of said envelope, and a mass ofnon-cellular, non-liquid, plastic, pressure displaceable, solidifiedthermoplastic plastisol material filling said envelope to bring saidenvelope up to breast pad shape, said filled envelope havingsubstantially complete memory for its form.

15. The pad of claim 14 wherein said plastisol material is a selfsealing gel.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,293,663 12/1966 Cronin 3- 63,304,558 2/1967 Mann 3- FOREIGN PATENTS 804,001 11/ 1958 Great Britain.

ADELE M. EAGER, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 3-36; 12848l

